The Chicago Blackhawks did something incredibly shocking on Friday. However, when you think about it, inviting Daniel Carcillo into training camp probably isn’t all that shocking, for a variety of reasons. Regardless of the true intentions of such a signing, even adding Carcillo to the training camp roster set off a mass panic around the fanbase, wondering what the motive actually is.
Carcillo anywhere near the Blackhawks is obviously a situation that very, very few throughout the world would actually want. There are a few different reasons that Carbomb/Gorilla Salad could have been brought in. For one, the St. Louis Blues added Paul Bissonnette and somehow he’s still on their training camp roster and the hope is that when the two squads meet, the ensuing brawl will result in them beating each other into oblivion and landing in another dimension. So really they’re doing us a favor. Or something much more realistic.
For all we know, the Hawks could literally just be adding Carcillo for the purpose of the final preseason game. Get another veteran in there and save the guys that are already ready to go for the season. There’s familiarity there, and we all know how much Joel Quenneville loves familiarity. This could end up lasting about as long as Cam Barker did.
Of course, then there’s the possibility that this signing is legitimate. That the Hawks picked him up off the scrap heap to send Brandon Mashinter down to Rockford and allow Carcillo to play actual NHL minutes. In that case, then the panic may be necessary. Carcillo does have a better “skill set”, if you want to call it that, than a lot of facepunchers in the league, and can actually skate with decent players. However, his penchant for being an absolute idiot on the ice overshadows anything that he does even remotely well, and is reason enough that the Blackhawks should steer clear of this type of scenario.
Regardless, we don’t know what the actual motives are here for the Blackhawks. They could be anything listed above. Getting him some minutes in the preseason just for the hell of it, while saving the coaching staff from having to use some veterans, or they’re actually considering adding him to the active roster at some point. It’d be an incredibly foolish decision on the part of the Hawks, but it’s not something we should put past them, for obvious reasons.
Randy Holt is a staff writer for Second City Hockey. You can follow him on Twitter @RandallPnkFloyd.